Elizabeth Blackwell

The quote above is by a woman by the name of Elizabeth Blackwell. Although Elizabeth was not a WID she was a pioneer in changing the views about a woman’s right to education in a non traditional field. I suppose at that time though any field of study outside of the home would have been considered “non- traditional” which makes her story so much more impressive.

When I looked up some information on Elizabeth Blackwell at Wickipedia this is what I found:

Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England of February 3, 1821. She was the daughter of a sugar refiner and third in line in a family of nine children. Her father Samuel Blackwell felt that the education of his daughters was just as important as the education of his sons and since he had the finances to support that belief Elizabeth was privileged to receive and education.

In 1832 her family moved New York and set up a refinery and then again to Cincinnati where her father died 3 months later. Elizabeth made it her aim to continue her education and worked her way though medical school by teaching in Kentucky. She moved in with a physician’s family and by studying their medical library to further her education and career. In the mean time she became an anti-slavery activist and became very active in the women’s right movement.

She went to Geneva College in New York. I found it interesting how she was accepted. The faculty apparently put her application to a student vote. The students thought it was a hoax and so they voted her in. (looks like the joke was on them). Of course she endured quite a bit of persecution. One story says that one of her instructors asked her to be absent one day because that was the day they would be dissecting a penis. She told him to talk to the hand in a very dignified way the account on Wikipedia said, “Blackwell is said to have replied that if the instructor was upset by the fact that Student No. 156 wore a bonnet, she would be pleased to remove her conspicuous headgear and take a seat at the rear of the classroom, but that she would not voluntarily absent herself from a lecture.”

She did succeed and on January 11, 1849 she became the first woman in the USA to get a medical degree AND ladies, she graduated at the top of her class! Of course that wasn’t the end of her trials.

She was not allowed to practice in most of the hospitals in the USA so she went abroad to Paris. She later came back with a glass eye (the result of loosing an eye to an infection) and a vengeance. She founded the New York Infirmary of Indigent Women and Children. She trained women as nurses in the American Civil War, and founded a Women’s Medical Collage to formally train women, physicians and doctors in 1868.

The American hospitals still wouldn’t hire her so she started Clinic in New York which she left in the charge of her sister when she moved back to England and teamed up with Florence Nightingale where she opened and taught at the London School of Medicine for Women. She was the firs female physician and doctor in the UK Medical Register and finally retired at 86 years of age.

All I can Say is WOW! This woman just didn’t stop. And the lesson here is that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. She may not have accomplished so much if it wasn’t for the challenges presented. She embraced the challenges and excelled.

Embrace the challenge ladies and don’t ever let them hold you back. Leave something for the next generation to inherit.

The Only Girl In Class

The Only Girl in Class
By Keturah Jordan

“Are you lost Sweetie? Home ec. is down the hall.”
Last century she might have said,
“Thank you,” Politely smiled then
sauntered off to cry.

Instead she takes the seat
closest to the front. The
smell of dry erase markers snakes
up her nose and through
her lungs. It’s actually a nice distraction
from the stream of eyes intent
on staring through her soul.

Silently she screams,
“This was a mistake!” They
wonder what she is doing here. She
wonders just the same.

The second had strikes.
Minutes and hour align. So begins
her chosen course, yes,
the rest of her life.

Weeks slide on. Suddenly
she sees. That seat, the one
so close to the front, is not for
know-it-alls, but for those
who want to.

Months skip on. She steals
time to reflect. What she brought
along she is willing to leave behind.
There isn’t enough time for fear.

Endurance, strength and wisdom
she has strapped to her side.
Honor, pride and skill,
a sword in it’s sheath.
She is ready.

A sigh, the time that has passed.
She stands to face her battlefield.
She has suffered ridicule.
She has survived distain.
Eyes that once despised, bow.
Respect is her shield.

She will succeed!

Our First Offical Meeting

It was so exciting to have our first official WID meeting on August 30, 2007!

What a collection of beautifully talented women. Hopefully later I can edit this posting to include a guest list of all the women in attendance.

It was so wonderful to see so many women who are in the industry and the large number of women who are just starting out! It was a lot different than when I started school. It’s the hope of all WID than there will continue to be more and more women joining us in the field.

What goes on at a WID meeting?

Well since it was our first ever Women in Design meeting no one really knew what to expect but none of us were let down. Here is a recap of what went on:


We were greeted by several smiling faces as we filled out our name badges. We also we able to enter our names in the drawing for some prizes that were to be handed out later.

I think we all were happy about the tray of goodies and drinks that greeted us as well. This gave us the opportunity to nourish ourselves while we chatted and got to know each other a bit.

Joel called the meeting to order and introduced our speakers:

Mary Hales - Spoke on the topic of further education at Lewis & Clark which would enable students to seek employment in management.

Keturah Jordan (yours truly) – I am a graduate of Lewis & Clark. I got my AAS in Drafting in 2000. I read a poem I wrote called “Only Girl in Class”. This was very personal poem expressing my feelings about being a woman perusing a non-traditional field.

Shane Callahan – Is the program coordinator for the Exercise Science program at Lewis & Clark. He spoke to us about the importance of exercise. He gave us helpful tips about BMI (body mass index) and how small changes in out day to day can help burn calories. Take the stairs, walk to you co-worker’s desk instead of using the intercom, park a little farther away. Purchase a pedometer and try to take more steps. Get up and move and stretch those tired muscles. He helped us to appreciate that Calories in vs. Calories out really was the key to maintaining a healthy weight. So watching what you eat and increasing your movement will help maintain that girlish figure. Because of the sedentary nature our chose profession we really have to take special care for ourselves and MAKE time for our health.

Next was the drawing for the door prizes. There were several one week memberships to Nautilus one of the local health clubs.

There were 2 personal sessions with Shane given away. A one year subscription to shape magazine and Joel’s wife Amy gave away a lovely basket full of Arbonne products (very nice I use them myself)

All in all it was a lovely time. We can’t wait for are next meeting. I will post that date as well as the anticipated subject topics soon as I know.

I hope there will be more there this time and I look forward to seeing you all!

Women in Design - WID History

If you are a woman working in any non-traditional field you are aware that you have had to deal with very “unique” issues or circumstances. I know I did and so have many of my colleagues. In my personal experience, those “unique” circumstances at times left me feeling overwhelmed and my male counterparts feeling at a loss at to how to help. I’m sure many of you have felt the same way from time to time.

How many of us though, would agree that those though situations would have been a lot less overwhelming if there was just someone who understood exactly what we were going through? What if there were other women we could turn to “vent” or turn to for advice? Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if there had been a whole group of women we could turn to?

Women in Design (WID, as we affectionately call it) is just that group!

The brain child of Joel D. Hall, WID was created to bring together women working in the design field within the St. Louis Area and beyond. As an educator of CAD design at Lewis and Clark Community College Joel recognized the special needs of the gifted females in his classes. He openly admitted that even though he cares very much about the success his female students he is, and always will be a male and therefore limited in his understanding of the things women in this industry endure.

Joel felt that the best aid to his up and coming female students would be to bring them in contact with other women already in the field. He felt that the interchange of knowledge between women working in all aspects of the design field would be beneficial to both the experienced and less experienced alike. So when he approached several of us and proposed the idea of a special networking group we were all eager to jump on board.

The initial group of women the Joel approached met together to discuss what some of the major issues facing women in the design field. There were discussions about how to make the group informative and fun. We were all so proud when on August 30th the first official WID meeting was held at Lewis and Clark Community College. You can read more about that meeting on a different post to come later.

I want to personally thank Joel for organizing this group and for all the hard work he has done and is doing to help women succeed in the design industry. I hope that more of you will get the opportunity to meet Joel in person at future WID meetings. And I look forward to hearing from you too.

I hope that this blog becomes a valuable resource to all of you WID out there!

You can contact me directly at widgrouplc@gmail.com with questions and suggestions.